Ozzy Osbourne’s Deadly Infection Could Have Come From Fan

Ozzy Osbourne could have received his potentially fatal hand infection from a fan, he revealed.

The Black Sabbath singer was found to have three staph infections in his right hand earlier this month, after germs made their way into his bloodstream through an insignificant cut on his thumb. He underwent surgery to prevent them causing permanent damage or even death. He’s continuing his recovery before resuming his farewell tour, with four dates having been postponed as a result of the medical emergency.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne recalled how his thumb swelled up to “the size of a fuckin’ light bulb.” “I didn’t feel sick, so I was cracking jokes," he explained. "The doctor said, ‘I don’t know if you realize, Mr. Osbourne, this is a very serious problem you have.’ … They’re all extremely, deadly serious about it. I judge it based on the expressions and the body language of the doctor. If he comes in with a really solemn face, I go, ‘Oh, okay. My time to go is up!’”

He noted that "they cut all this stuff out. Even with the numbing stuff, it was agony. It wasn’t pus, but it was the stage after pus, when it gets in the blood and goes in your body and fucking kills you.”

Osbourne was asked how he could have contracted the infections. “The doctor said to me, ‘Can you remember talking to someone and shaking hands?’" he recalled. "Well, I do that meet-and-greet at the gig and I must shake fucking 200 hands a day. He said, ‘That explains it.’”

He was ordered to undergo complete rest for 10 days after being warned “You must be fucking crazy. You get another staph infection, and you could die. One’s enough. You’ve got three individual ones.” Reporting that he felt “about 85 to 90 percent better,” Osbourne added, “I went, ‘You know what? I’ll let the doctor be the doctor and I’ll be the patient.’ … I’m going to make those shows up next year. It could have been a lot worse. I could have been dead.”